


people and places

by OceanMyth



Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [28]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Kyoshi Island, rarepair time boys, yokoya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:20:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28877850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanMyth/pseuds/OceanMyth
Summary: Aang is leaving Kyoshi, and Suki wonders what it means to be home.
Relationships: Aang/Suki (Avatar)
Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2113209
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	people and places

“Are you really leaving so soon? It feels like you only just got here.”

Aang turns from securing Appa’s saddle straps.

The smile he gives Suki is wistful. Her hands clench in her skirt, and she bites her tongue. She has to let him answer, no matter how much she wants to ask him about their plans to go visit the other side of the island, to ask if he’d just planned to leave without telling her.

“Unfortunately yes. Something came up in Ba Sing Se— some sort of issue with a treaty or agreement—and they need me there immediately to mediate the dispute. It looks like I can’t get out of it either...Zuko sounded cranky in his letter,” Aang answers.

What Suki doesn’t say is that Zuko  _ always _ sounds cranky in his letters, that Zuko’s temper is a poor way to decide on the urgency of a matter, and that he shouldn’t go, that she doesn’t want him to go.

What she does say is something far simpler.

“Will you be back?” Her tone is too close to begging for her comfort. Aang is nearly done securing the straps, and Suki isn’t watching the muscles of his hands flex and tighten as he works with the ties.

“Hopefully.” Aang finishes securing the straps, and then turns back to Suki. She can see the disappointment at leaving in every line of his body, and some part of her is reassured. Grounded, like the earth is steady under her feet once more. Aang looks down at her, slouched back against Appa, body relaxed, soft and open. He glances towards the sky, then meets her gaze with his intense grey eyes, and continues.

“You know, growing up, I was taught that home is people. But… Here, in Yokoya, I think I understand what it means to consider a  _ place  _ home. She loved it here, and I can’t help feeling the echoes.”

  
  
“Who—Avatar Kyoshi?” Suki asks, feeling a little unsteady again at the turn the conversation has taken. She’s not sure what Aang’s talking about, or why he’s brought up Avatar Kyoshi after avoiding talking about her for his entire visit, but if it will keep him from leaving, for just a little while longer...

“Yeah,” Aang looks out over the rest of the island. “It’s weird, to walk through a garden or to find a nice view, and feel like I’ve seen it a thousand times when I know I’ve never been there before. But it’s nice, like being wrapped in a love that you can’t comprehend yet, but you will with time. She loved it here, and I’ve grown to love it through her love, through her understanding. I think I understand what it is to call a place home, not just people, because of her.”

Somehow Suki is sure that Aang is no longer talking about Kyoshi by the end.

She reaches out and pulls Aang into a hug, grabbing as much of his sash in her hands as she can, and holding on tight. The material wants to slide from between her fingers, and she holds tighter, though she knows it won’t help.

“I’ll miss you,” she whispers into the crook of his neck.

“I’ll miss you too. You and Yokoya both,” he replies. She lets go of his sash regretfully, and Aang turns back to Appa. She watches him vault into Appa’s saddle and take off.

Maybe she does know what Aang was talking about, in a round-about sort of way.

She herself had never considered a  _ person  _ home until now.

**Author's Note:**

> Aang rarepair rights.


End file.
